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Contents 1 2010 9-1-1 Adventure Challenge Info 2 2010 9-1-1 Adventure Challenge Pictures 3 2010 9-1-1 Adventure Challenge Map 4 2010 9-1-1 Adventure Challenge Results 5 2010 9-1-1 Adventure Challenge Reviews 5.1 Josh's Take 5.2 Joanna's Take 5.3 Charles' Take

2010 9-1-1 Adventure Challenge Info

• Bushwhack Adventures' 9-1-1 Adventure Challenge
  • Date: August 7th
  • Location: Raleigh, NC
  • Event Details: 8 hours
  • Event Description: Teams will be mountain biking, trekking, orienteering and swimming across a lake for up to 8 hours as they navigate their way to checkpoint flags. Estimated distances in each discipline are: trekking 6+ miles, biking 20+ miles.
    • 2 person, 3 person & 4 person teams
  • Event Points Category:
    • Checkpoint Tracker Day Race
  • Team Registered: Josh, Joanna, Charles Oswald (recruit)

2010 9-1-1 Adventure Challenge Pictures

2010 9-1-1 Adventure Challenge
Josh Preparing	Joanna Preparing	Charles Preparing	Josh Hydrating
Team Transitioning	Team in Fins

2010 9-1-1 Adventure Challenge Map

2010 9-1-1 Adventure Challenge Results

• 3rd co-ed category out of 7 teams, 8th overall out of 30.
• Results
• Detailed Results

2010 9-1-1 Adventure Challenge Reviews

Josh's Take

Joanna's Take

Charles' Take

This was my first race with Team Roc Gear and I really enjoyed the experience and time with Josh and Joanna.

Let me start by saying that timing was tight. Following a long work week, we departed from my office in Buckhead on Friday afternoon, were in bed at the Raleigh Marriott at 2:30am and the alarm went off at 6am. Given the busy timing which already forced a lack of sleep, none of us really did a whole lot of race planning in advance. While showing up to the race and “winging it”, may be a common practice for me, I think we all know our fearless leader Josh likes to plan… no sweat, we’ll just do our planning on the clock, right? Fortunately, we got a parking space right next to the pre-race meeting so that we continued to pack our gear during the pre-race meeting. We were really pushing the envelope on time!

The race began with a prologue of 3 CP’s. Early on, we ran into a snag as we mentally adjusted for the 1:5000 map scale… or perhaps it was a lack of sleep and we weren’t awake just yet? We finished the prologue toward the back of the pack and decided to settle down and take our time in forming a race plan for the remainder of the course. We received our large maps following the prologue and plotted 20+ points on the clock. We worked together as a team to identify route choice. After nearly an hour, we were finally off to the races… in last place! No Biggie, we just figured that by spending more time to develop a great race plan, it would allow us to maintain constant forward momentum, clear the course and pass all the other teams by the end. BTW – if I had a nickel for every race I’ve started at the back of the pack, I would retire!

It was a rogaine format with weighted CP’s. The course was laid out such that it played very much in favor of strong cycling teams. We decided to bike the majority of the course and just pack our swim gear and nutrition (no paddle in this race). Key decision – Joanna and I decided to forgo running shoes and just run/hike the short running legs in our clipless bike shoes, whereas Josh used toe clips/cages and stayed in his running shoes throughout the race. Needless to say, I have an impression of a Speedplay cleat embossed into the ball of my foot and Joanna picked up a few blisters along the way. Nonetheless, we progressed steadily along, with only the typical minor hitches here and there.

The first CP (#2) took us a while, but the race pace picked up from there. Josh made good route choices and forward progress remained steady. By the time we completed the 10th CP, which also happened to be CP #10, alongside a quarry (arguably the most challenging navigation point of the day), we realized there would be a need to re-evaluate our aspirations of clearing the course. We decided to attain #11 on the other side of I-40, near a water treatment facility and then head toward the swim at #22 in the park at Crabtree Lake. The search for #11 consumed more time than planned as the clue and the plot did not match up very well. Josh verified the plot 3 times, but we ultimately decided to continue our search based on the clue which described a re-entrant… Joanna ultimately spotted the re-entrant point with her eagle eyes and we quickly punched and headed on toward the swim. Incidentally, I later spoke with a few teams who said they never did find #10 or #11. The swim didn’t take too long, but this was the most challenging part of the day for me as I had the pleasure of dragging some team gear across Crabtree Lake in a large dry bag. Though I have to admit that the swim was rather refreshing on a hot, summer day!

We ran back around the north end of Crabtree Lake back to where we had initially transitioned from bike to swim. We re-evaluated our race strategy again and dropped some high-value CP’s from our plan. We would now just capture the points that were within a 1k diversion of our main route back to TA. The goal was to return to TA and leave ourselves 1 ½+ hrs to complete an O-course. Timing to TA went generally as planned and along the way, Josh eliminated one more point (18) and we ultimately returned to TA with 1:45 to spare for the O-course.

The O-course was laid out pretty well and required a bit more advanced nav skills as our first, key landmark on the map (old power lines) no longer existed in real life. As a result, we were temporarily diverted and lost some valuable race time. Josh quickly figured it all out and we were back on course. The most interesting CP was located at what appeared to be an old water cistern that had collapsed and rusted out with age… another great point was located on the side of a small cliff / rock formation next to the river. The O-course took more time than anticipated and ultimately, we captured just 3 or 4 of the 6 or 7 O-points before we had to return to TA.

We finished 3rd Coed, missing 2nd by a value of less than 1 CP… but I believe Josh may have finished 1st in the number of ticks picked up along the course… last count was 13! Overall, this was a well-organized event, Josh was a great navigator and Joanna was a pleasure to race with. We had a strong team dynamic and I enjoyed my inaugural race with Roc Gear. Hope to race with you all again sometime in the future!

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